External Awards: PathWest staff achievements in 2023-24

Anatomical Pathology

• Dr Priyanthi Kumarasinghe was appointed President Elect of the International Academy of Pathology (IAP) in 2023 and assumed the role of IAP President in 2024.
• Dr Ming Chai was appointed President of the Australasian Gastrointestinal Pathology Society and won the IAP 2024 Poster Prize for the Sunday Masterclass titled ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go with Cytology!’
• Dr Disna Abeysuriya won the IAP 2024 Oral Presentation Prize for her presentation on ‘Birth Asphyxia and Early Neonatal Death.’
• Dr Kimberley Chung received the award for Best Oral Presentation by a Registrar Award at the Australian Society of Cytology (ASC) Annual Scientific Meeting held at the Gold Coast in November 2023.
• Mr Neville Hattersley was honoured with the Best Scientific Presentation Award at the WA Branch ASC Annual Meeting.
• Dr Ronan Knittel was awarded the Brennan Prize for his presentation at the Australasian Dermatopathology Society meeting in Melbourne, September 2023.
• Dr Laura Luttrell was recognised with the Best Poster by a Registrar Award at the ASC Annual Scientific Meeting in Gold Coast, November 2023.
• Dr Tiffany Foo received the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) Perinatal Conference and Education Award in 2023.
• Dr Victoria van Winden won the IAP 2024 Best Poster Prize for her work on ‘PRAME as a Promising Marker to Distinguish Undifferentiated Melanoma from Undifferentiated Pleomorphic Sarcoma.’
• Dr Hannah Matthews was awarded the GI Society Poster Prize for her presentation on ‘Is it a Met? Next Generation Sequencing as a Valuable Adjunct in the Diagnosis of Pancreatic Spindle Cell Lesion.’
• Dr Daniel Nguyen received the IAP 2024 Poster Prize for his work on ‘A Cytological Diagnosis of an Unusual Thoracic SMARCA4-Deficient Undifferentiated Tumour with Chondromyxoid Stroma.’
• Dr Nicole Swarbrick was honoured with the UWA Medical School 2023 Excellence in Teaching Award.
• Ms Lisa Griffiths attended the 27th Australian Conference on Microscopy and Microanalysis at UWA and placed third in an image competition with a spectacular mitochondrial paracrystalline inclusion in skeletal muscle.
• Dr Amber Louw was awarded the Jeanette Philips Prize at IAP 2023 for the best paper published by a trainee in the preceding year at the Endocrine Meeting.
• Dr Paul O’Neill received both the Dr Annabelle Mahar Anatomical Pathology Trainee Memorial Prize 2023 and the RCPA Perinatal Conference and Education Award 2023.

Biochemistry

• Dr John Burnett has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the RCPA Pathology Journal and Chairman of the RCPA Manual Editorial Board.
• Dr Paul Glendenning has been appointed Chief Examiner in Chemical Pathology, and Dr Damon Bell has been appointed Deputy Chief Examiner in Chemical Pathology for the RCPA.
• Dr Sam Vasikaran is the Vice President of the Asia Pacific Federation of Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine. He has also been appointed as a Director of the RCPA Quality Assurance Programs Board.
• Nicola Sawyer has been awarded her Fellowship of the Faculty of Science from the RCPA.
• Julie Maxwell-Brahms was awarded her Membership of the Australasian Association of Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine with commendation.
• Julia Aldworth, Julie Maxwell-Brahms, Teagan Davis, Felicia Shaddick, Patricia Burson, Karena Tham, and Shweta Makwana attained their Certification of the Medical Laboratory Scientific Workforce.

Forensic Biology

• Anna Heavey was elected as President of The Australian and New Zealand Forensic Science Society (ANZFSS) WA branch and awarded a Graduate Women (WA) STEMM Bursary 2023 to support her PhD research project at Curtin University.
• Colby Hymus was elected as Secretary of the ANZFSS WA branch.
• Dr Joyce Eade was elected as Deputy Chair of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission DNA User Advisory Group.
• Julie Murakami was awarded Best Poster in the Management and Quality Assurance section at the International Association of Forensic Sciences (IAFS) conference held in Sydney in November 2023. The poster detailed the work undertaken by the Forensic Biology Department to improve turnaround times for the reporting of volume crime cases such as burglary and motor vehicle theft.
• Anna Heavey, Colby Hymus, Tammara White, and Sharonne Rampant each won awards to attend the IAFS conference in Sydney in November 2023. Anna and Colby received ANZFSS national awards, while Tammara and Sharonne were awarded ANZFSS-WA branch awards.

Forensic Pathology

• Dr Kirralee Patton was awarded her RCPA Diploma in Forensic Pathology.

Haematology

• Winner at the 2023 WA Health Excellence Awards in the Excellence in Sustainability category: PathWest Haematology QEII, PathWest Haematology FSH, RSS laboratories and all PathWest scientists played significant roles in making this project a success.
• Joel Graham was awarded the Best Poster of Oral Presentation that demonstrates improvements within a blood bank laboratory setting at the Blood Conference 2023. His poster entitled ‘Reducing Red Cell wastage – The value of centralised management and surveillance in WA’, demonstrated significant improvements in a blood transfusion laboratory.
• Dr Katie Lewis was the recipient of the WA Cancer Fellowships program for 2024 to develop her cytogenetic skillset.

Immunology

• Dr Dominic Mallon was a finalist in the 2024 WA Rural Health Excellence Awards in the Specialist (Non-GP) of the Year category.
• Sam Neeling received the Clinician Researcher Training Program Scholarship from the Future Health Research Innovation Fund.
• Dr Dianne De Santis and Jon Downing were awarded their RCPA Fellowship in the Faculty of Science.

Microbiology

• Dr David Smith and Dr David Speers received the Order of the Medal (OAM) of Australia in the 2024 King’s Birthday Honour’s List.
• Dr David Speers won the Minister for Health’s Award at the 2023 WA Health Excellence Awards 2023.
• Winner at the 2023 WA Health Excellence Awards in the Excellence in Preventative Health category: Long-term reduction of WA salmonellosis cases: Strategies and control of community-wide outbreaks.
• Finalist at the 2023 WA Health Excellence Awards in the Excellence in Preventative Health category: Japanese Encephalitis Virus: One Health Response.
• Dr Peter Boan, Dr Chris Heath, Dr Graham Weaire-Buchanan, Ian Kay and Dianne Gardam received the National Health and Medical Research Council Grant investigating fungal susceptibility testing using the FLOW method.
• Dr Geoff Coombs was appointed as Principal Examiner for the Microbiology Faculty of Science at the RCPA and a Member of the RCPA Faculty of Science Committee.
• Dr Shakeel Mowlaboccus was one of two recipients of the 2023 Australian Society for Microbiology Jim Pittard Early Career Award.